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viernes, 3 de enero de 2014

Phidias' light

Athens, 450 B.C. After
the battle of Plataea, the definitive expulsion of Persians and the
"Peace of Callias" a process of building
and embellishment of the city is carrying out driven by Pericles. Crowning
the Acropolis, the Parthenon works begin
at 447-446 B.C. It is dedicated to
Athena Parthenos (the Virgin). Apart from religion reasons, the
building is a demonstration
of civic pride and commemorates achievements of
Athens under the patronage of Athena. The sculptural program is run
by Phidias that together with an army of stonecutters and
apprentices of all skill levels, giving life to metopes,
frieze, akroteria and a spectacular pediment, the
most crowded of greek art.

Parthenon at Nashville, 1897

When I look
at the Parthenon, this nineteenth-century version, I
remember the words of Alejandro Amenabar in a presentation
interview of his film Agora: I
wish there were a lock, for whose eye I could see these
people life, as they are connected, how laughed and cried, their
world. I wish I could look through it, even a single
second.

Parthenon at present

The truth is quite
different. If you ever go through the Propylaea (monumental
gateway of the Acropolis) you will find on arriving
at Parthenon, only a marble skeleton remains there.
Centuries after its construction upon its stylobate people
prayed to Jesus Christ and Muhammad
and Jacques Carrey drew the pediments, much of
the frieze and all the south metopes (Centauromachy) in
1674. In the late seventeenth century a venetian projectile
burnt down the turkish powder keg inside the building ,
blowing everything up. Thus we come to 1812, the date
on which Lord Elgin rescued those elements that were
on the ground or could be easily
removed. 1817, The British Museum buys the
marbles to be included in its collection of Greek
art. Among its many galleries are
preserved sculptures and reliefs made ​​for the decoration
of the building although the set is divided by different
countries.

Two hundred years later I
wander stunned along the halls of the Museum. I've
seen the Rosetta Stone, written miracle
that facilitated understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. I have
been overwhelmed by Lamassu, animal gods that
welcomed and protected the palace of Ninrud. The Nereid Monument is
constrained under the roof replacing what was turkish sky. However,
my excitement grows when I read the letters on a glass
sheet that leads into what I craved the
most: "The Parthenon Galleries".

Men, amazons, giants
and centaurs make my way to
the pediments. Phidias particularly looked after these
representations and John Boardman says that by their hands
every cloth every face, every knee and
every torso emerged . There was no place for learners,
there was no place for workshops. Only one master
had to shape those reliefs that crowned the most important
temple in Athens. Here they are, after 2500 years, before
my eyes. I am privileged to contemplate. My
position is special, intimate, close. These sculptures were
seen from the ground to over 20 meters high. Today I have them in front of me .Just
centimeters separate me from Selene horse. I see his
veins, his disproportionated eyes as it penetrates into the
ground to make way for the Sun. Hermes and
Artemis are still present at both events. I
imagine the set as a whole, I mentally
complete Athena and Poseidon , their grief, their determination which
is a culture's determination , a civilization that would change
the world.

This post is just
an excuse to share with you two short videos I
made before the remains of both pediments. The West: the
contest between Athena and Poseidon during their competition for the
honor of becoming the city's patron, more deteriorated and
fragmented and the East: the
birth of Athena from the head of her father, Zeus, best
preserved . Besides these videos, I show an image
with drawings by Carrey (according to the historian Ernst Berger) that serve
to contextualize fragments exposed in
the British (marked with a red circle).

West Pediment:

East Pediment:

Many more things could
be said now as describing the chosen theme or
giving my opinion whether or not the marbles should
stay in London . If you want to find out more, just do it. The history
of representation, according to Hogarth, consists of three
essential steps (at least until the arrival of abstract
art) These are: Ancient Greece, the invention of perspective and
the advent of Constable It is without a doubt in ancient
Greece when the picture became more anthropocentric. The
gods never had seemed both men and beautiful women, athletic
with determination and courage. The beauty in their
shapes was the beauty of their justice , his
impartiality ,his perfection. It is therefore not
surprising that the advocate of Parthenon
works was Pericles, politician and orator of Athens. He
encouraged Phidias to shape the gods governing Hellas. Gods that we
are privileged to see from a privileged position. From the
Olympic Zeus to the provincial tanagras, each
representation has been revered by generations before
reaching our secular eyes.

This is Art, This
is History much more important than us, much
more essential. Today was Phidias. Tomorrow is Hokusai. 2014. Happy New Year.

One must pity those who lack contact with this heritage of the past. One must be so grateful that one can listen to Mozart and look ar Velazquez and must be sorry for those who cannot.